I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.
Moses instructed the children of Israel that every year they were to bring some of the first produce from each crop and present it to the Lord as a gift offering. As part of the offering ceremony they were to recount what God had done for them as a people. Every third year they were to give a special tithe offering to the Levites, foreigners, widows and orphans among them.
Moses called on them to remember the laws which he told them and to obey all that God had commanded them. When they crossed over into the land, they were to set up an altar on Mount Ebal and offer sacrifices to God there. After they had done that, some of the tribes were to go up on Mount Gerizim to proclaim a blessing over the people of Israel. At the same time, other tribes were to go up on Mount Ebal and declare a curse over the people of Israel. Moses gave them a list of actions to declare would lead to being cursed. The list was such things as:
- Cursed be anyone who dishonors father or mother
- Cursed is anyone who leads a blind person astray on the road.
- Cursed is anyone who denies justice to foreigners, orphans, or widows.
- Cursed is anyone who accepts payment to kill an innocent person.
There were more, but the above list is a good example of the curses which Moses declared should be agreed to by the people of Israel.
When Jesus entered the town that Martha lived in on His way to Jerusalem, she invited Him into her home. Her sister Mary sat at Jesus’ feet listening to what He had to say. Martha however was distracted by the preparations that needed to be made. She came to Jesus and asked Him to tell Mary to help her with the work. Jesus answered her that she was worried about many things, but there is only one thing that needs to be worried about and Mary had chosen that. Jesus finished by telling Martha that what Mary had chosen would not be taken from her. Martha was too busy with the preparations to spend time with her guests, Mary was too busy visiting with their guests to work on the preparations. There are several different ways to interpret this passage, but today I see it as emphasizing that it is more important to spend time with people than it is to make sure that all the details are “right”.
Luke tells us that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. Jesus gave them the sample prayer we call the Lord’s Prayer. For this I prefer the NIV:
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.”
I have seen several attempts to talk about what we are praying for when we pray this model prayer and I will attempt to do the same. First we are to acknowledge that God is out Father and loves as a father. We are to strive that honor His name as Holy. We ask that He bring His kingdom onto this earth and exercise His authority here. We ask that He provide for our needs each day. We request that He forgive our sins and promise to forgive those who we have grievance against. Finally, we ask that He lead us away from the temptation to sin.
Jesus then went on to expand on this some more. He tells a story about asking a neighbor in the middle of the night to borrow provisions. Initially, your neighbor may tell you to go away because it is late, but if you continue to knock your neighbor will get up and lend you those provisions to make you go away. Jesus tells us that we are to continue to ask God for what we desire, even if God does not initially respond. He tells us that if we ask, it will be given to us. If we knock, doors will be opened for us. If we seek, we will find. If we, who are sinners, give good gifts to those we love, how much more can we expect God to give us His Holy Spirit when we ask? Jesus tells us to be persistent in our prayers (especially those for others).
There is definitely something to this passage. My wife has a friend who does not live near us. She has been very concerned for him for some time. He drank too much, ate too much, smoked too much and lived in a neighborhood that has become progressively more dangerous. She has been praying for him for some time. She has been desperately praying that God would address all of these issues in his life. Over the last couple of months, he has pretty much stopped drinking, lost weight and started using electronic cigarettes. Then just last night, he told her that he had been asked to move into a very nice house in a nice neighborhood to take care of it for someone who needs to move out of it to receive care for their health. If you had asked me a year ago, I would have said it would take a miracle to get any one of the things she was asking for in this man’s life. Now there is only one thing left on her list, that he come to know Jesus as his Lord and Savior. I have faith that the Holy Spirit can answer that prayer as well. Today’s passage and that story, lead me to fresh determination to pray for the souls of several of my friends who do not know the Lord.
God is a mighty God, let us honor His name. No one can stand against Him, those who defy Him just bring glory to His name. God will judge those who do evil and rescue the oppressed. He will break the pride of the rulers of this earth. I will sing praises to God and vow to follow His ways.
It is foolish to think that you are the only one who knows the right answer to a problem. Listen to what others think and change your mind when they say things that will help you make better decisions. Those who are foolish rapidly get angry at perceived insults, while the wise stay calm and listen to what is said to see what they can do to make things better. Those who tell the truth almost always tell the truth, once people have caught you in a lie they will not trust anything you say ever again.